'Bullied' girl, 13, is found hanged

THE 13-year-old daughter of an award-winning artist has been found hanged in her home after complaining about being bullied at school.

Laura Kilibarda had apparently been "unsettled" by bullies at her school in the weeks before her death.

Her mother found her hanging from a strip of cloth in her bedroom in their home, a barn conversion with stables and paddocks, in the village of Lisvane, near Cardiff.

Police described Laura as an "unhappy and troubled" girl. Insp Gary Sullivan said: "It is a terrible tragedy that someone so young could do this.

"There was no single event that led up to it. She was unhappy and had been unsettled for a little while.

"We are looking into her school and social life and if any of her friends know anything they should come forward and speak to us."

Laura, a member of a riding club in Cardiff, who has an older sister, Emily, 18, was seen walking her dog through Lisvane two hours before she died. She was a year-eight pupil at the 1,500-pupil Llanishen High School in Cardiff, where she was said to have been doing well.

Following her death last Saturday, her father George Kilibarda, and mother, Penny, a senior business lecturer at the University of Glamorgan in Pontypridd, South Wales, met the head teacher, Alan Boxford, to discuss bullying and other issues.

Mr Boxford said yesterday: "Laura had a nice, cheeky grin and a bit of a spark in her eye. She had her moments - there was good and bad behaviour but no real problems. The pupils are very sad and we will be talking to all the pupils in year eight."

A neighbour, Brynmor Rowland, 77, a retired farmer, said: "My daughter keeps her horse with the family and she said the little girl was being bullied."

Laura was found dead less than two days before she was due to return to school after the two-week Easter holidays.

Her father is an award-winning painter who covered the Balkan conflict as a war artist.